Response to commentary: Bush's translator in Romania

[smcginnis at nflc.org]

With caution and hesitation, I comment once more on this issue.  In my
earlier post, in which I called the errors in translation not substantive, I
neglected to add that my comments were unclassified based on definitions
provided in E.O. 12958 and reflected my views only and not those of the
government.  One person responding to my posting pointed out that my e-mail
address is state.gov, so I need to reiterate, that my comments were/are my
own and that I don't speak for the State Department or the government on
this issue.

Having said that, if I understand correctly, "standing hip to hip" and
"shoulder to shoulder" mean essentially the same thing.  We stand side by
side with a common goal and purpose.  Standing "cheek by jowl" would be
another equivalent.  (My students in Kiev in the 1970s really liked "cheek
by jowl.")  On the other hand, "standing toe to toe" would be a substantive
mistake since it would indicate a confrontational relationship.  This is
all, of course, true for English.  If standing 'shoulder to shoulder' and
'hip to hip' indicate different kinds of relationships in Romanian, then the
mistakes would be substantive for me.  I can see why a professor may not
give credit for 'shoulder to shoulder' when the actual words were 'hip to
hip'.  On the other hand, the message for both would be the same.

Jim Bernhardt

This e-mail is unclassified based on definitions provided in E.O. 12958 and
reflects the views of the author only.


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